The lawsuit was filed by Clarence M., a man from California who was injured by the G2® Retrievable Inferior Vena Cava Filter (“IVC Filter”) manufactured by C.R. Bard and Bard Peripheral Vascular Inc.
C.R. Bard G2® Inferior Vena Cava Filter
The IVC Filter was surgically implanted in his vein on May 8, 2010 at a hospital in California for the purpose of preventing a life-threatening blood clot complication known as a Venous Thromboembolism (VTE).
The G2® is a device tha is implanted inside the largest vein in the body — the inferior vena cava (IVC) — to catch blood clots. IVC Filters prevent blood clots from traveling in the bloodstream until they get stuck in the lungs and cut off circulation to lung tissue.
The problem is that G2 IVC Filters sometimes cause far more serious side effects, especially if they are not retrieved as soon as possible.
The G2 was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2005 as a replacement for the Bard Recovery® IVC Filter, which was linked to high rates of fracture and migration in 2004.
Like the Recovery, studies soon showed high rates of fracture associated with the G2. The safety problems were not surprising, considering that the G2 did not go through clinical trials because C.R. Bard told the FDA it was “equivalent” to the Recovery IVC Filter.
Studies now estimate that G2 IVC Filters have a 38% risk of fracture in 5 years — nearly identical to the 40% 5.5-year fracture risk studies have associated with the Recovery.
Lawyers say C.R. Bard knew — or should have known — that the G2 was defective and posed unreasonable safety risks, but kept the G2 on the market sold 160,000 devices before pulling it off the market without a recall in 2010.
The lawsuit was filed on July 18, 2017 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona — Case 2:17-cv-02388-DGC.
There are currently over 2,200 additional IVC filter lawsuits against C.R. Bard that are centralized into a federal Multi-District Litigation (MDL No. 2641) — In Re: Bard IVC Filters Products Liability Litigation.
The plaintiff is represented by Ben C. Martin of The Law Offices of Ben C. Martin in Dallas, Texas. He a trial attorney who serves on the plaintiffs’ steering committee of the Bard IVC Filter MDL.
